No $278ish with the upgrade of 250GB HDD.

I paid via CC hope they come to the party

damniiittttttttttttttt

i missed it again >,< went swimming and now it’s gone.

me thinks some employees r doing it on purpose cos they got fired due to financial crisis :P

i doubt they’ll sell these babies at $200 n somthing dollars, they’ll lose like 200+ on each machine.

me too…. Not swimming….watched a movie.

maybe they actually putting one out cos they stuffed it up twice already. to let us trust them agian.

if i paid by credit card which i was dumb i didnt read the whole note cos last time it happen i was to late to even order one

i got 2 confirmation emails as i did 2 seperate orders..

you think i could still pay via internet transfeR?

is there a way i can edit the order so i can pay them via internet transfer then money?

Gawd, This is the best laugh I’ve had in a long time.
If Dell rejects these new orders, they will look like complete clowns.
DELL might have to change its name to DILL (Australian slang for idiot for those that don’t know)

i’m gonna so chuck a fit for going swimming and missing on this deal if u guys actually get it.

But highly doubt it as dell would lose even MORE money than if they let the last deal go through :P

i c my neg vote coming :P

The site is not working anymore :

“
Due to technical difficulties, we are unable to process your request at this time.
“

Good luck guys !!

After 5 days of this Dell crap and being mucked around by them, the word “Vostro” is honestly starting to sound foul and disgusting. At first I thought it was kinda cool and funky name. Better than Inspiron. Now…bbrrrrrrkkk yuk what a shit of a name. Foul and gross company and matching name :)

well if the order falls through so what?

its not like you drove to the store placed a order and paid…..

like if it works fuck… great…. its awsome bargin

if it doesnt…. oh well we got fooled but i mean even WE knew this COULD be 2 good 2 BE true.

soooooo i dunno why ppl crying….. if it works great if it dont then dell in the shits….

doesn’t mean we need 2 bag the shits through it

How many times in one week can Dell list this computer at a great discount before they admit that they’re negligent in the way the manage their pricing system? It’s been listed at this discounted price for almost two full business day out of the last five days. Cough up Dell, this problem is your fault, now pay the price for the errors or fix your bloody system.

For all the people wondering why why is making so many stuff ups, i think it’s cos they’re cutting alot of staff due to financial crisis and these cut staf are making dell pay :P

i mean all it takes is 1 person to access the database and change the price :P

highly possible cos if i got fired i’d prob try screw dell over as well HAHAHAHAHA

As funny as that would be, there should be only a hand full of people at Dell that should have the authority to change the pricing so drastically, then shit like this wouldn’t happen.

and for it to happen 2-3 times

you’ll prob see a law suit againest that person

I vote class action if Dell does not honour this.

Companies get allot of advertising mileage out of these things and there should be laws to make sure they do not make ‘mistakes’ deliberately to get the advertising mileage.

Some year ago United made a mistake on their new direct flights from Chicago to Delhi, they missed a Zero and tickets sold online for $150. United later said it was a mistake BUT they did honour the purchases. They also got terrific advertising with articles in major news papers and word of mouth. I bet the loss cost less than an advertising campaign giving similar coverage.

if this happened in the US I am sure Dell would be required to honour the sales, it just seems like Australian consumer laws or lobby is not strong enough.

Sure mistakes do happen but
1. how do you avoid them being an excuse for advertising mileage.
2. make the mistakes hurt so they don’t happen again.

CLASS ACTION!!!

no offense, I love america, but typical american! well if it dont go down the way i want, SUE!

No offense.

Sue = The American Way
Let Companies Shit on Consumers = The Aussie Way?

If you read contract law you will then understand Dell is making invitation to offer and you are the one who make an offer. Dell then does not take the offer. So there is no contract. which is actually ok….

But then we can also argue by requesting us putting the CC info and deducted the amount, we can say there is an intention to take the offer and contract exists. Then they argue paying by CC is not actually paid yet, blah blah blah.

For this senario, really the Dell’s reputation works…If they care about their reputation (if there is still any), they should honour it.

I wonder if the Dell PR machine has been kicked into overdrive for this weekend..

Ohhh Marty, Marty, Marty… Its even too wet and rainy over Bondi to get out for a swim this weekend too!
Its interesting to see you at Dell now, I didn’t know you were there! Last time I saw you was at the Gay Games ‘02. You were down in Sydney with Dave and Glenn. You’d just started working with Radianz back then. (Ha, you were pretty happy to be out of Equant though I remember :)

I take it your move down to Sydney went ok? Did you end up getting Spectrum Comms to sponsor your visa for the move over?

It’d be good to catch up again - You should still have my contact details. Drop me a line, we can grab brunch on the beach.

do you reacon ACA (A current affair) or TT (today tonight) would be intrested if Dell doesn’t honour their deal??

TT/ACA almost cream themselves when a dodgy contractor rips some pensioner off 18 cents, they’d probably keel over when they heard about a) A major brand most of the population knows of doing bad and b) doing it twice in one week.

My thoughts on this Dell situation. I think it’s a genuine mistake (again). I know it’s a second one in a few days and they made another a few months back, but I still think it’s a mistake. I think the fact that they offered 10% for the other mistake was a genuine goodwill gesture. Having said all that I ordered one this time though bank transfer. :)

On the moral side of things, it’s questionable whether taking advantage of one’s mistake is acceptable or not. And what if today it wasn’t Dell, but some fair dinkum Aussie home business (let’s call him Kev) that made a booboo? Is it more wrong to take advantage of Kev’s mistake compared to taking advantage of Dell’s? The fact that it’s Dell’s second mistake in a few days also doesn’t help.

I’m not a choirboy myself and I think I won’t take advantage of Kev’s mistake and will take advantage of Dell’s only because they are a huge international business. Maybe I’ll give them a free pass the first time they made a mistake but I think the second time while still a genuine mistake, it’s fair that they suffer some consequences. I don’t think there is a “right” or “wrong” answer and buying this computer knowing that it’s a mistake doesn’t make you a bad person.

On the legality side of things, I think if you paid though bank transfer you have good grounds for them to sell a computer to you, even though they may try calling you and say it’s a genuine mistake, which they are perfectly entitled to do. If you pay by a credit card, it’s highly unlikely that you’ll get your computer. The reason being that Dell will cancel the charge they put on your credit card after they found out and you wouldn’t actually “lost” anything.

There’s no such thing as compensation for time and effort wasted. It’s also highly unlikely (and won’t be worth it) that other avenues will be successful, for example, Trade Practices Act, etc. There is no prospect of a class action.

OK, taking the non aggressive approach,
it would actually be in Dells interest to honour the deal.

How many PCs do you think sold in that short time.
say 300,
what would be actual loss to Dell.
again I estimate $300/pc.
so that a loss of about $90K

Now think of the amount of positive press and coverage they would get for it.
How much would that amount of advertising cost.
how many new people are going to be hitting the Dell website after that.
Would it be worth 90K,
I sure would think so.

This way everyone wins.

+1, i couldn’t help thinking this is intentional and a Dell advertising on the cheep.

What Dell are going to do is offer everyone the $799 system.

Your Credit Card or Bank Account will be debited the extra ammount. Consider this a “deposit”. If you ordered 4 then you will only be getting 1 system and a EFT refund from Dell within 4-6 weeks.

You never give them your bank details, so they can’t possibly debit your account.

As for credit card, you’ve only authorised them to take our say $238.64, like in my case, and unless they have your permission, you can’t be charged more.

Exactly the same circumstances as before with the other Dell system. They’ll probably try and upsell it to us, but if you stand fast against what lies they tell you, then you can try and fight it.

it is unfair for you to give a negative 1… If the checkout shows $400, they can’t charge $799 to your card… they’ll be in trouble if they do that…

If you’ve been following this drama since Monday you’ll realise a negative is perfectly appropriate. You all have zero chance of getting your computers. That didn’t stop me from placing an order though. Twice. (Mon/Fri).

Are you seriously that dumb? How can Dell just charge what they want and then send you a more expensive system? Wow. Are you old enough to drink beer?

Also a negative is for the guy submitting the deal, not for if you think the deal will work or not.

Haven’t seen anyone receive a call about these yet…

WTF in no way is a negative vote in any way directed to the submitter of the deal. You vote positive if you think the deal is in fact a legit deal, and neg if you think this is not legit or their are some major issues related to the deal that people should be aware of.

But it is directed at the submitter of the deal..
This site works by rewarding people (monetarily or by goods) for finding and sharing deals..
Only if a submitted deal:
1) can be had cheaper and is therefore not a deal at all
2) is Spam
should it receive a negative vote.. otherwise the person/people submitting the deal/s will not be rewarded and therefore wont submit future deals.

I ordered the system and paid by CC.
Is it too late to make an internet transfer?

I mean, if they won’t charge customers by CC, what’s stopping us from paying by internet bank transfer?

I am assuming Dell supplies their BSB and Account numbers to the people who selected the internet transfer payment method, and use the internet reference number (which comes with the order acknowledgment email) as a transfer message. You can then ring up Dell to tell them u have paid by bank transfer and ask them to change the payment method. OR you can wait, If dell charges you on the CC also, ring up and tell them you have paid by bank deposit already.

can someone confirm the internet payment process and supply the necessary details?

cheers

I paid with VISA debit card…but we will see what we will see..I have my testicles crossed over this one :)

I ordered two by internet transfer. Do you think it will work? And fuck DELL if it doesnt.

I ended up ordering 4 on 3 different orders all paid for by CC. I’m expecting that I’ll end up with none, but we’ll see.

the vostro 220s is now listed as $649 but i think the specs are lower

It’s a dual core Celeron processor instead of the Pentium (less RAM too etc).

if anyone ends up getting one. i will buy any for $100 on top of what u payed (if you got it for around $300 - $400) cheers

and then you sell it at $300 on top of what you bought from us? cheers

dont be so quick to judge. i dont onsell bargains. Just offering to purchase one. I have been living with a dell dimension 8200 for about 6 years now. i am just looking to upgrade.

by the way. i cant seem to get any further with the checkout buying any dell systems at the moment…

That’s good.

Dell, bring down your order system if you don’t know how to configure / can’t guarantee it works properly.

I don’t think there is any mistake here.
There are different configurable options for a computer, adding stuff more money, removing stuff less money.
Do you cancel order when people adding upgrade?

It’s not like posting an item with one price fixed configuration, e.g an ebay item or any other online shopping site (even though you still don’t see a price error is likely to happen with other sellers/vendors)

I ordered one in the previous deal ($399 something) and already received phone call informing technical error (probably from an India Call Centre).

I don’t think there’s a big chance Dell would honour a cheaper pc like this.
Dell should be promoted to MX ACA TDTN …

so what’s going on? are u guys getting it or not?

someone call dell and speak to a manager?

I’m presuming they aren’t calling on the weekends, i’m expecting a call on Monday about this

I’m expecting 4 calls…… 3 from this cock-up and one from the last

Who’s gonna get onto our friends at ACA / Today Tonight? I’m tempted, but wonder if Dell’s more likely to close up tighter and require more prying open if we do. Could go the other way though..they don’t want bad publicity (lol).

Has anyone contacted them yet?

I have some screen caps. They might be useful showing what happened.
http://users.comcen.com.au/~maf101

It’s weekend so will wait until Monday.
Good…Dell can’t escape this time! They have the whole weekend to think of the new excuse :)

I’m looking forward to it. It’s a legitimate price on the computer system alone (minus accessories) and I simply don’t want to obtain the extra bits.

I wonder how they’re treating people who got that system but also bought those overpriced accessories.

This whole thing will be a PR nightmare for Dell.
Especially considering their previous actions and comments in regard to these ‘mistakes’.

Check out http://www.dodgydeals.com.au/2008/11/dell-deals.html

We need to make sure it is for them. I’m going to fill out the ACA, Today Tonight contact forms later today. I’d encourage others who want to try and get their computers / make life painful for Dell to do the same.

Like any story you see on those shows, the more bad press, the more likely they’ll be to back down.

Are we all ready for our phone calls tommorow telling us that are orders are cancelled..

Ive got to get to the bank early and pay for mine so then i can go on about how ive paid for the item so a contract has been formed,, and that ill be expecting my machine in the next week or so. And that if they dont deliver ill be contacting the ACCC or my lawyer.

Just remember be confident and don’t give up. be persistent!!

lol i payed full price on my computer

Hi Ben,

Just another article about Dell pricing stuff up to add into your dodgydeals repertoire:

July 2008
http://technollama.blogspot.com/2008/07/dell-involed-in-mass...

Those Chileans people were talking about class actions :) !!

That’s the way!!

Just reading through the terms and conditions of Dell and wanted to see what you guys thought of this..
Dell has 3 online policies, found here: http://www1.ap.dell.com/content/topics/topic.aspx/ap/policy/...

The Terms and Conditions of Sale (“Terms and Conditions”) found here (http://www1.ap.dell.com/content/topics/topic.aspx/ap/policy/...) state:

1. DEFINITIONS
   “Contract” means a contract for sale by Dell to the Customer of the products and/or services incorporating the Terms and Conditions.

2. FORMATION OF CONTRACT
   2.1 No Contract shall come into existence until the Customer’s order has been accepted by Dell and such acceptance has been received by the customer. The contract shall deemed to be concluded at the time and place where such acceptance is received by the Customer. The Customer warrants that it is buying for its own internal use only and not for re-sale purposes.
   2.2 The products sold and/or services rendered are subject to the Terms and Conditions to the exclusion of any other terms and conditions stipulated or referred to by Customer. The Customer acknowledges that it is aware of the contents of and agrees to be bound by the Terms and Conditions.
   2.3 These Terms and Conditions are subject to the laws of Australia including without limitation the Trade Practices Act 1974 (the Act).

To me, its no doubt written in Dell’s favour and says that no contract exists unless the order acceptance (second email) is sent to the customer. When we placed the order, there was a box we ticked saying we agree to these terms and conditions. How well does this stand up realistically if we were to press on? Dell obviously has a smart legal team who carefully wrote out the above, so it seems like we dont have much a case, other than a large group of people in a number of forums.

Don’t get me wrong - I placed an order for this and would love to get the PC, but just putting it out there for the more knowledgable to discuss.

Of course the T&C are written in Dell’s favour, they wrote it!!! But it doesn’t mean that they are above the law though.

To me the issue is simple. Dell offered me a computer and when I click “ok” it constitutes acceptance. Mere acceptance won’t be enough and consideration is needed, which is why I then transfer money to Dell’s account.

Issue will arise if you used a credit card to pay because you have not actually provided a solid consideration to them (although one can argue a charge on a credit card is a form of consideration). They can revoke the charge and that’s that.

I ordered one thought bank transfer, let’s see how it works out on Monday.

From my point of view (no legal experience at all): why would they need to call us all and get our permission?

If there was no contract, then they could just do whatever they’d like and mass email us all and dump our orders. Their phone calls are evidence they legally need us customers to cancel the orders; otherwise, they seem bound to deliver.

Suppose your local computer store/computer fair had a special clearance price for a similar desktop and you instead choose this DELL offer.

Now the special clearance price at your local store/computer fair is gone and if DELL does not honour the deal you already paid, you will be disadvantaged by DELL’s mistake. Shouldn’t DELL compensate the buyers in this case?

Excellent point - I’d actually thought of the same thing with regard to if someone is actually buying this for a business or office etc.

I could debate to Dell that my computer is going to be used for my employment (which, since I really do work from home sometimes, is), and me not having the computer from their “mistakes” affects my income.

I’m very tempted to tell them this when they call me and see what they say..chances are they’d shake it off. However, last time, they took over a month to deliver a Dell laptop to me. A few phone calls and a lengthy complaint later and I’ve got extended warranty and free peripherals. There is hope - it’s not over til it’s over.

any calls any calls?

Thanks to Ben V Dell, RockDJ and cacbm for their input (and others as well).

Looking through the thread I reckon I found something that would get us closer to making Dell to abide to the contracts (and it is what all of us have at the moment at least the ones who paid via EFT but definitely not limited to those ones). Anyway look what we have :

walugi wrote :
“I wonder how they’re treating people who got that system but also bought those overpriced accessories.”

tes2131 wrote :
“lol i payed full price on my computer”

So, if walugi would keep us informed on his (full price) deal, then we would know how Dell treat customers on the same deal but with different PC configurations.

And another thing is that on the first deal Dell was saying $399 is too cheap for the PC, OK now it was a $966.20 deal (see provided screenshots above) - people just did not select accessories they do not wasn’t to - and now Dell is saying it was a “technical error”. No it wan’t. Probably they have some problems with their pricing policy, but it is up to them how much they want for a particular spare part.
If they think that $966.20 is an unreasonable price for a slim desktop computer system (which is not much extendable and has half height PCI slots), then they are totally wrong. It is not that sort of errors when you can see $3 or $5 tag on something that would noramlly cost >$400. The advertised price was very good and it was reasonable.

you mean tes2131 right?

I was merely wondering :)

I hate Dell.

I haven’t received any confirmation of orders yet. Any updates guys?

Wow I hope to hell Dell don’t screw us all over on this. I’m gonna fight til the end!

Haven’t received phone call or email about the order, received the acknowledgement though.

We’ve just got to stick together! :D

I am thinking if they do call, I will just say I am going to wait for others, talk to me later…. haha

Yeah, I’ll say my esteemed legal counsel is waiting on the ACCC, haha ;)

Guys, check the link again, it’s working again.

http://configure.ap.dell.com/dellstore/config.aspx?c=au&cs=a...

This time though the accessories on page are NOT ticked, whereby ticking them increases the price FROM $799.

I feel so jipped by Dell, this is ridiculous.

they honoured our company’s order of 6. However, I think it’s because at the end we pay $1,200+ each for the computer (We have to make our configuration the same for the rest of the workstations). I still haven’t received anything for my personal one (which is $480+)….

tonyxu,

If they have honored the deal for the ‘mistakenly’ priced PCs with your companies additional configuration on top, could you please email me a copy of the sales receipt and any other literature you may think would be useful. This would be very useful for all of us (and your own personal order)

Thanks

ben@dodgydeals.com.au

Just doing some further research on Dell and they have been to court before for misleading advertising. If you purchased this computer and they fail to deliver I would complain to the ACCC directly.

I am willing to join a group of people to complain to Dell altogether - I doubt one of us will make any headway alone.

Still waiting for the phone call!

Has no-one received a call about this latest cock-up yet? I was one of the last in the previous cock-up so am not expecting anything for a couple of days….

I took this to Dell and called them directly. After giving the lady my internet reference order, she asked me to hold. Then the line disconnects!
I thought, maybe theres something wrong, so gave them the benefit of the doubt and called again.
Got a guy this time, and the SAME THING HAPPENS.

Has anyone else tried calling them yet? Is it just bad luck for me, or are they deliberately trying not to talk to me after seeing the order?

LOL that’s messed up dude, I really hope this all works out… I want my computer!

lol that’s the funniest thing I’ve heard today. It’s the business equivalent of skipping every 2nd word on your mobile, then claiming you’re going through a tunnel “the call is breaking up”.

I’ve paid for 3 computers so they had better get a move on…..

Im prepared to join the ACA thing, on the phone with dell now. I tried to track it via online and its not recognised by order number or the Internet Reference Number. Tried the dell phone sales service and apaprently the number i ahve is 9 digits but the phone can only recognise 6 or 8 digits. Im on the phone the sales support now

BE WARNED!!

I’ve just got a call regarding my order for Dell’s previous error. The operator immediately said “I have been informed by my colleague that you would like to cancel your order and receive a refund”.

I’ve never agreed to cancel my order. All previous phone conversations all ended with operator saying their supervisor will call me back because I do not accept cancellation of my order or pay $799 for the system.

Dell is using dodgy tactics to trick customers to cancel their orders. This must also be against the law.

To those that are calling Dell, the best number I have found is 1800 812 392.
This is their small business switchboard.
At this point, I explain I am following up on an order, and they attempt to transfer me to someone to deal with it. (And of course that person is always busy and I am promised a phone call back)

If I can’t get them to communicate with me in the near future, I am considering calling good ol’ Marty (02 8972 5591) and seeing if he is able to use his phone.

One of Dell’s supervisors called me back last week about the first messed up order. Left his name as Winston Robins (I believe another Ozbargainer spoke to someone by the name of Winston) and he left his phone number with me to call back if I choose to cancel the order - 02 8972 5782.

For those that are keen, you can give that number a shot.

Hi, I’m new here, thanks for the great site.

I ordered 2 of these - one on Credit card, one via direct deposit. No calls from Dell yet.

I see Dell has a record of this - refer http://www.smh.com.au/news/breaking/dell-error-a-hard-bargai... . Note the following from the article:

” But the NSW Office of Fair Trading said today that Dell had a legal obligation to provide hard drives to credit card customers they had charged for the incorrectly priced hard drives.
AdvertisementAdvertisement

“Our interpretation of the Sale of Goods Act is that the consumers who have had their credit card debited have entered into a contract with Dell,” a spokesman said. “The transacting of the money constitutes a contract for sale.” “

Yeah, the important word there being “debited”..
Noone’s credit card has been debited yet, nor are they likely to be..
Therefore that “precedent” is not applicable to this situation.

but the ones who made EFT had had there accounts debited. right ?

Mine has!! :-)

Debited != you shoving money into their account.

I transfer 2 days ago via EFT and I check my bank and it seems it has not gone through yet. Maybe Dell reject it. Has anyone got the EFT through or debited from their bank account yet ?

Well my infamous commonwealth bank has suck the money immediately after i paid using eft and left me with $20 to spend on the weekend. So i will be very upset if dell cancel this..

Yeap… used internet transfer to transfer the money. Itz out of my account but as to whether they have accepted is another thing.

I rang Dell (on the 1800 number) and gave them my internet reference number and they put me on hold and then confirmed my name and said the order has not yet been entered into the system and said that someone would call me back within the next 2 hours. That was at 4:30pm. No call as yet.

It’s incredible how sneaky they seem to be!

Hey everyone,

was talking to one of the sales staff and she just told me that I would be contacted by the customer service department shortly. This was over 2 hours ago. Guess they got a lot on their hands right now.

Yeah, a lot of lies and deceit to sell to unsuspecting people who bought the deal.

No time at the moment, but I’ll be harassing them about BOTH deals real soon. Here’s hoping we get some progress soon.

It’s suprising that this hasn’t made any of the major newspapars.

We have just been slash dotted guys…

I guess this means Dell can’t keep on trying to sweep us under the carpet =o)

It’s just a matter of time.

Interestingly, we haven’t heard mum publicly from our friends at Dell about this 2nd issue have we?

Congratulation to DodgyDeals.com.au. Here’s the /. article:

http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/11/17/0234256

Btw, are you the guy who submitted it to Slashdot?

Has anyone tried to contact Marty Filipowski @ Dell senior manager of corporate communications for Australia and New Zealand? +61 2 8972 5591. marty_filipowski@dell.com

Hahah if that’s what it comes to, I’m game!

Why not reach right for the stars and give Michael Dell a buzz? :D

I want to hear them say “Sorry, we screwed you over” before I do anything like that… Haven’t even received an order confirmation or email or phone call… not happy!

I know that if Dell don’t come through for me on this, I will have no trouble at all recommending other computer brands to all of my friends and family

hey, no news is good news .. i wish to remain ignorant until my ‘confirmation of payment’ email arrives =D

I’d love to a fly on the wall at Dell at the moment.

Another day guys, still no news. Any updates?

No calls, no charges on my CC (yet). maybe they are still discussing the issue :)

same here

in my opinion dell might playing dumb and just try to waste our time and in the end we need to call them to cancel the order. My colleague has been a week with no call where they keep promise to call him back.

I agree that their customer service is super lousy, last time I was transfered by three times and still cannot get to the correct people. And many times they cannot hear me from their end. Dell in Australia is quite chaos.

it’s quite obvious Dell is ignoring everyone here and just passing everyone around in circles. In the other Dell deal, I told the people on this site to just give it up… drop the case. But seeing from the people here how Dell treats its customers and is trying to back away from what is to the lay-person an obviously legit attempt at a sale which has been taken up by consumers (even though it backfired on them), I hope the masses take them for everything they’ve got. It’s despicable that people are being told they will receive calls soon and get no call back in a week. To be passed around to different people at call centres, to be told “we have no record of that in the system”, to double the price and then be offered 10% off the product. I’d be mad. By the way, I am not one of the people who tried to purchase the computer, I just feel your pain dealing with customer service people~!~

Just spoke to Dell… To prevent double up, check out:
http://www.dodgydeals.com.au/2008/11/step-by-step.html

This isnt even an deal.. stupid Dell…

this was a waste of time..

That’s exactly it, I feel like I’ve had my time completely wasted. I emailed them on Sunday morning and received an auto-response saying they’d reply by the end of business next working day. Still haven’t received an email or a phone call.

impatient people deserve no deal :P

If none of you guys get an order completed at the said price, we should at least black list DELL on OzBargain and spread the word so other sites like Whirlpool also do the same.

And miss out on all this excitement? I’m enjoying reading about how this is all playing out… best daytime soap opera ever lol

I’ll consult the legal aid office today. Let’s see if they can give us any good advice.

SMH’ed now as well - http://www.smh.com.au/news/technology/biztech/halfprice-offe...

I can only say 1 thing, YOU DID A GREAT JOB.

Excellent work. I really think getting negative press for Dell is going to be the only chance we have of Dell honouring this deal without a fight. Let hope that’s why they’re taking so long to decide, weighing up the pros and cons.

And excellent news for OzBargain for getting some free advertising :D

Wow dude, you’re amazing!

Sounds like Marty might be getting a little antsy about all this. With that article in tow, ACA et al. here I come.

Hi Ben V Dell, I really appreciate what you’re doing, mate. Keep doing this and once you need some reinforcement just call on us.

Pretty funny that the google ads in the right hand corner of ozbargain include one for Dell Vostro Laptops

Actually that’s the ads for Money Back Co, not for Dell.

I thought about blocking Dell ads from my site… (www.dodgydeals.com.au) but decided against it. The way I see it, Dell are paying for those ads anyway and anyone on there is not likely to actually buy anything from ‘em =o)

That SMH article says:

“The NSW Office of Fair Trading says traders such as Dell are generally obliged to deliver goods only if customers have paid for them, which creates a binding contract.”

I’ve paid for 3 by EFT, gone out of my account into theirs. So surely I must have a contract with them.

Come on Dell, send me my damn computers….. !!!!

it would have been fine if dell only stuffed up the first time but to do it again in the same week after they we’re quoted to have fixed the problem so it would not occur again…

Are ‘Fair Trading’ or any other gonna follow this up on our behalf or do we have to battle it ourselves?

The more people get in contact with them, the greater chance they will actually do something.
… But, I think this will just end up in the too hard basket

http://www.consumer.vic.gov.au/
http://www.fairtrading.nsw.gov.au/
http://www.fairtrading.qld.gov.au/
… etc

According to the QLD fair trading website ( http://www.fairtrading.qld.gov.au/OFT/oftweb.nsf/Web+Pages/C... )

A couple of interesting points:

Before lodging your complaint please consider the following: Does your query relate to a Queensland business? If not visit useful links to find the state fair trading or consumer affairs office where the business is based and lodge your complaint with them.

And also:

Please note that you MUST approach the trader/supplier to seek satisfaction before lodging your complaint with the Office of Fair Trading Queensland. We will not handle complaints where you have not made a reasonable attempt to resolve the matter with the trader first unless you have an exceptionally good reason.

So probably try and resolve it first before contacting the correct office (NSW??). If someone like Ben who already appears to have done the hard yards contacts them then perhaps we can all add weight then.

You are correct. Dell state that they follow NSW law. So perhaps we should be emailing the OFT NSW.
(I will fix the links above).

Do people think they are more like to respond to 100 contacts from 100 people, or 1 contact from 1 person representing 100 people? Thoughts and views on this?

Personally, I think one is a good start. Ideally that would be someone who has been through the wringer already. At that point if it has any legs they can mention there are many other people in the same boat and ask if it’s OK for them to also contact the office about the matter. If so, is there a reference or job number people can quote when ringing in to save time all round.

One of my oders’ payment is CC and Dell never take any money. Can I simply EFT the money to Dell account now?

Just got the call from Dell. I think the lady on the phone must be very tired. She immediately asked me for my bank details for a refund without even saying that there was a technical error, bla bla … Told her in the nicest possible way that i demand an email to explain about the error & why it takes so long for Dell to reach its customer. She said bye bye of course. I’m still waiting for email.

Btw, my order is for a $350 Dell, not the current one. It took them more than 1 week to give me the first call, hik.

So they just close the phone straight away? thats rude

I just called and they (customer care) said payment had been received but the order had not been processed yet. They going to “escalate” urgently to the sales team to call me back. This will be interesting.

If they have acknowledged that your payment has been received, this is very interesting!

I wish they’d email this sort of stuff out to us! :(

I’d just like to know anything at all!

seems like Dell will just ignore people who paid with cc this time. Will pretend nothing happened!

Division’s manager wouldn’t care about Dell’s reputation or anything he just wouldn’t want to be the manager of a division selling products at a loss.

Hmmm so people who bought using their credit cards are not customers?

Yeah what a crock, I don’t see what the difference is.

I think time to make this news into world wide such as engadget or gizmondo? make sure that Michael Dell got the our attention

LOL Now I don’t even care whether I get my computer or not. Just wanna bring Dell down. Shame the bastards worldwide!

Hik, attempted to call them 3 times. They passed me around and then just hung up. I sent email to complain. Most likely they will just ignore it i think. They made me really angry now.

In the mainstream news now: http://www.smh.com.au/news/technology/biztech/uproar-as-dell...

I purchased one 4 my sis thanks to you guys and she’s willing to join the fight. Keep the screws on them if they “honour for one the should honour for all!”

Same article in The Age, daily newspaper for Melbourne

http://www.theage.com.au/news/technology/biztech/halfprice-o...

mmm dang .. DELL has the support of ACCC.

Mmm not quite. I dont think ACCC was made aware of the full story at the time they made that statement.
I also don’t think this easily fits into something the ACCC want to handle.

I agree, Dell’s first dodgy deal may have be a mistake. But there is no way their second attempt could pass as a genuine mistake (in the eye of ACCC).

Either way, we need to collectively turn this from a snowball into an avalanche. Only with more coverage (ACCC, Fair Trading, SMH, ACA, TT, Digg, Reddit, Gizmodo, Endgadet, etc) will Dell succumb to pressure and yield to honour the deal.